Work calls on trains

[the7Vabo]

But of a rant but I’m sick of people using their commute time to do work calls.

I just moved location on a train as it looked like I was going to be subject to a call for almost the whole journey (an hour). He’s so loud I call still hear him from the other end of the carriage.

I also work in one of the largest organisations where I live and I regularly overhear calls relating to it.

The guy this morning had his laptop open, basically acting as if he was at a desk.

Is it unreasonable to expect that people consider that others may not want to be subject to the noise during their morning commute?

Just work calls you have an issue with or all calls?

Some really unpleasant remarks that aren't relevant to the topic.

I hate people having long calls on trains whether it is work or not. There are 2 people I see regularly on my commute and actively avoid as I know that every single day they use the journey to have loud catch up calls with just about everyone they have ever met (and there are no quiet carriages on my train).

I couldn't care less. There is equally anti-social noise on trains and loud, raucous conversations can be intrusive and annoying with or without a phone.

I know I find this an irritant so it's been a long time since I've boarded a train without noise-cancelling earphones. Getting annoyed won't help. They are not going to stop doing it, so might as well adopt my own measures to make travelling more comfortable.

God love you having to “put up with” fat people on the train

I was once sat next to a man on a train who had spread out his notes involving a Police sexual abuse employment tribunal. He was the HR representative. It’s absolutely unbelievable what people think is appropriate to do in a public space.

I think the lack of consideration is the problem, regardless of the disturbance relates to work or not. I don't want to hear about the project some stranger is badly managing but nor do I want to hear about little Johnny's cold either.

From an employment perspective, I'm surprised how many people think it's acceptable to discuss work (loudly) in public and/or blatantly show work information on laptop screens. I work in Financial Services and we would be fired for doing this even once. We don't even discuss work when we're in the lifts in our own offices if there's someone else in the lift with us! And for working from home, we have to get annual Compliance approval if we live with someone who works in the same industry!

They are because people automatically speak louder on the phone, especially on public transport because there is so much ambient noise.

Me personally, I find work calls more stressful as it makes me feel like I’m still at work.

I also find people tend to be louder on work calls especially men. The guy this morning was on full on delegation mode, it’s bad enough having to listen to those type of people on the phone in an office.

I work in an open plan office and had to sit opposite a guy who announced loudly at the start of the day that he had meetings all day and proceeded to have those meetings shouting at his desk about things are petty minor in the grand scheme of things. We have dedicated rooms for calls but it didn’t occur to him to use one.

I have to review a lot of documents in detail for work as do most of the people surrounding me, so they are generally fairly quiet, but we share the space with other teams and it doesn’t seem to occur to them to use meeting rooms & call rooms.

on trains, if there was a loud carriage I’d happily let them all get on with it in there. they can do as many property transactions and projects as they like.

Long personal calls aren’t ideal either, I don’t find them as triggering personally but I expect most people who find calls annoying wouldn’t car what the subject was.

It doesn't bother me. Mostly because it's public transport and I accept I can't have the place as my ideal mode of transport.

There are definitely things that bother me: smelly food/people, people touching me etc but if someone is minding their own business doing their work that's one I don't mind. There's all sorts of invasive noises on public transport I find (loud tannoys, screechy rails, general chatter of people) and I just class loud phone calls in that bucket.

Put headphones in?

I mean, I don't disagree that it's a pain in the arse, but so is commuting, and it's expensive. I shouldn't think people are working for fun, they're working because they're expected to.

I'd take people doing phone calls over eating tuna or filing their feet...

To be honest, any loud phone call on a train that goes on beyond a few minutes (say, beyond "sorry I can't talk I'm on a train!") is annoying.

On the flip side, I adore a bit of goss so I love it when you hear a really juicy conversation! 😁

personally i think my remarks were entirely relevant. I was pointing out that if you let them there can be lots of things that annoy people. I'm not saying any of these did because i took the view that if you were on public transport you had to be a bit more tolerant of people's habits

Friend of mine was commuting a few years ago in a train carriage that had several 'regulars' that she recognised who always worked on their laptops on their way to work. One day one of them was challenged by someone who apparently was a senior manager from their workplace. Sounded like they were prohibited from using their work laptop in a public place and they were told to log off and advised they'd be subject to an investigation on arrival at work.

I doubt a lot of them are expected to work on public transport. They chose to because it suits them, they can drop the kids to school and start work on the train or whatever, or get an earlier train home etc

Fine, if you are just on a laptop.

When I get on public transport, I have low expectations. I brace myself to possibly endure people talking loudly, chewing gum, listening to something without headphones, talking on speaker, eating greasy foods or food with crackling packaging, people who have terrible body odour or strong perfumes, people who stare, people who put up feet on seats, just to name a few. I expect to come across all of that and more every trip. When it’s just one or two on my list I think I’ve had a fantastic journey and don’t feel so grim.

People commute because they aren’t wealthy enough to have an alternative. Because they can’t find good work near home for everyone in the family. Because they provide care for elderly relatives while still keeping their career afloat. Because they need the income from a second job. Because they don’t want to rip their kids from their school, or their husband/wife from their support network. Rarely, it’s for fun.

Loud conversations on trains are annoying - but frankly doesn’t matter if it’s for work or fun. Whether it’s on the phone or in person.

Purchase a good set of noise cancelling headphones. Campaign for quiet carriages.

If it’s not a quiet carriage then you just have to accept that noise will happen. You might not want to have your commute disturbed by them working. Maybe they want to cut 2 hours out of their day by multitasking? Frankly that seems more important.

I used to have a massive commute, I couldn't just sit there for 5 hours and not do work; I'd have never seen my kids or slept if I then had to do that 5 hours work when I got home. I tried not to have too many phone calls but occasionally this was unavoidable (and the conversations were never confidential or particularly interesting). If you don't want to want to put up with what other travellers are doing, maybe driving to work is better?

I played Baby Shark loudly on a few occasions in response to loud wanky work calls on trains. The word offenders are the ones on loudspeaker, but those with headphones on tend to speak SO LOUDLY, so both are highly irritating.
One important man gesticulated furiously pointing at his EarPods that he was on a call. I just closed my eyes and kept vibing 🦈

A few years ago there was a guy going on about how crap his colleague Claire was.

In the end I told him to shut up because it was a quiet carriage anyway and we didn't need to hear confidential information. Of course he said "oh I don't care about that" so I said "well you should and your colleague will care". He did terminate the call, or maybe the person he was talking to heard me and terminated the call!

Another time I was sitting next to someone who had "highly confidential" on the documents they were looking at. I took a photo and they didn't even notice! I did delete it and didn't take it any further, but seriously. People are really stupid.

No, driving isn't better. And not everyone can drive.

And I wonder if your calls were so non-confidential and uninteresting as you think. You'd be surprised at what titbits people can put together.

I find your first paragraph OTT. I commute to a city centre, people don’t live because it’s not a nice place to live.

Multitask away but please don’t infringe on me to do so, it’s very very selfish

He is very probably falling foul of his security and privacy policy at work, which is usually a big deal. Most companies have policies that require you to not have calls in earshot of others, especially non company people. Report him to the company.

I'm afraid if you're going to exist in public you're going to experience other people. I'm not saying hearing everyone else's phone calls on the train is pleasant but it's far from the most annoying thing other people do and if it makes you this angry, consider that you may be the problem.

I do everything I can not to have to take phone calls in public but sometimes it's unavoidable, and I understand this is sometimes the case for other people.

I also do everything I can not to have to hear other people's phone calls and this is easy. Good headphones, loud music, job done. I recommend this.

If people are being crap about their confidential job information it is quite literally not your problem in any way.